By forcing blood through the circulatory system and thereby maintaining oxygen distribution throughout a patient's body, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can drastically improve the chance of survival for the patient experiencing cardiac failure.
According to the 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care, in most emergencies, the quality of CPR provided by the rescuer can make the difference between life and death. An effective compression rate is recommended as that of 100 chest compressions per minute at a compression depth of about 4-5 cm. Unfortunately, even trained professionals often do not perform CPR correctly. An automated audio-visual CPR feedback device can greatly assist a rescuer in correcting his or her CPR administering technique and thereby improve a patient's chance of survival.
Attempts are being made to develop and improve CPR automated-feedback devices. The chest compression rate is highly correlated to the spontaneous return of circulation after cardiac arrest. CPR feedback devices to-date are stand-alone devices, unable of real-time communication and corroboration with other devices, including medical devices. Often, CPR is administered when unnecessary or is not administered when necessary. Studies have found that compressions are often not delivered when cardiovascular circulation was absent. Corroboration with other devices would be highly desirable in selecting the most appropriate course of therapy. Further, existing CPR feedback devices lack programmable user-interfacing and setting options. Such device/user interfacing would be most desirable in providing patient and user custom-tailored and flexible CPR feedback most fit to both the patient and the rescuer.
Time after time studies find that often, even when administered by trained professionals, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) compression rates and depth are inadequate. Too week, shallow or too forceful compressions may contribute to suboptimal patient outcome. Several parameters are crucial for optimal and properly-administered CPR. Crucial parameters include proper hand positioning on the patient's chest, depth of compression of 4-5 cm, and compression rate of 100 compressions per minute. The crucial parameters are often affected by patient parameters, and relative to the patient, rescuer parameters, such as patient thoracic volume; weight; age; gender; and rescuer's, relative to the patient's, parameters, such as weight, height; physical form, etc. Proposed here is an automated CPR feedback device with user programmable settings for assisting with real-time feedback and subsequently correcting rescuers patient customized CPR technique.
Accordingly, a CPR feedback device that is capable of being pre-programmed by a user and further able to communicate with additional devices would be highly desirable. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.